ABC Countdown has Begun!

How many letters in the alphabet? 26! Our ABC Countdown started this week, and we'll be adding a little sparkle and zip to each day with activities for each letter!

A - Awesome Authors and Animals

With a stuffed animal under one arm and a favourite book in the other, we relaxed with the letter A!

B - BINGO!

We enjoyed playing our favourite BINGO game, Rhyming Word JINGO!

We also squeezed in some summer bingo outside, too!

C - Chalk and Cup Stacking

Coffee? Chaos? Crazy? Yes, we had those three "c" words, too, but we celebrated letter C with cup stacking challenges and chalk!

We enjoyed sharpening our hand-eye coordination as we stacked cups! Our patterning, sequencing, and perseverance were all strengthened!

Chalk in the sunshine with friends? Yes, please!

D - Dice!

We tackled a partner adding game (linked here) and were so excited to use dice IN dice! We each rolled a double die, added our total, and whoever had more took a counter. Gather all 10 counters to win!

Roll to 100, as always, was a hit! 8-sided dice made it even more challenging!

It was a wonderful week together! How is it almost June?

Little Tree Huggers

 Arbor Day was terrific! Our morning was bright and busy!

Trees have birthdays! We learned to count the rings on a tree "cookie" and learned how drought and the seasons affect the rings. Trees need TLC! 

We met some very brave and bendy arborists who were caring for trees! As we nibbled a cookie, we watched in awe as they trimmed branches high in the tree. 

Our hearts were pumping at the "Nature-cise" obstacle course!

We planted our very own seedling in biodegradable cups, so that the cup can be planted along with the tree. Remember to give your seedling lots of sun, water, nutrients, and of course, LOVE! Trees will come home next week.

We headed towards a treed area to hear a story and build "fairy houses" with dead material (e.g. sticks on the ground, fallen pine cones). The students loved this activity!

We learned about the importance of fire safety. We were very, very strongly cautioned that fires are incredibly dangerous and are never, ever to be played with. We were, however, surprised to learn that forest fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem and can play a role in maintaining a healthy forest. 

We each received fantastic lunch bags filled with water and bananas and we settled in for an interactive performance by Peter Puffin!

We are all going to sleep well tonight! What a fabulous day of learning!

Chickie Love

We've spent 21 days carefully monitoring our incubator!

This week, we were absolutely elated to experience hatching firsthand! We watched in awe as sweet little babies pecked out of their eggs, fluffed up in the incubator, and were moved to their home in the brooder box. God's new life is miraculous!

We wasted zero time and decided these little fluff balls needed some gentle cuddles. The boys and girls learned they needed to sit while holding a chick, and to keep a hand under their feet as well as lightly on their back. It was such a lovely experience snuggling with our new little miracles!

As a class, we'll be caring for these beautiful chicks until the end of the week. 

It has been an AMAZING few weeks filled with loads of valuable science and language arts lessons. More importantly, however, are the lessons we have learned about new life, respect, patience, and compassion. God's work is truly amazing!

Thank you, God, for blessing us with this experience! We are in truly in awe of your amazing work and beautiful creations!